Jubilee Hills gangrape: 18-yr-old accused sent to police custody for 3 days

A Hyderabad court on Wednesday sent the only major accused in Jubilee Hills gangrape case to police custody for three days. Though police sought custody of the accused, Saduddin Malik, 18, for seven days, the Nampally Criminal Court only granted three days custody. The police will take Malik in its custody on Thursday from Chanchalguda Jail, where he is currently lodged.

Malik is number one accused in the May 28 gangrape of a 17-year-old girl. The remaining five accused are minors and they include sons of a TRS leader, who is also chairman of a government-run body, and of an MIM MLA.

Jubilee Hills police have also filed a petition in the Juvenile Justice Court, seeking custody of the five juveniles for further questioning in the case.

Though police have announced that they completed the investigation in the case and arrested all the accused, the questioning of the main accused is likely to help them in gathering more information as to how they trapped the victim and lured her to join them in an Innova vehicle in which they later sexually assaulted her.

While four juveniles, along with Malik, were involved in the gangrape, the fifth juvenile, son of the MIM MLA, has been charged with molestation as he had got down from the vehicle before other accused took the girl to another place and raped her.

Malik was arrested on June 3 while the juveniles were picked up subsequently from various places.

The incident occurred on May 28 after the victim and the accused attended a daytime party at a pub in upscale Jubilee Hills. Police investigations revealed that while in the pub, Malik and a minor misbehaved with her.

When she came out of the pub, the accused followed her and trapped her. She boarded a car with the accused to go to a bakery in Banjara Hills and en route four juveniles forcibly kissed her, made videos, and circulated them.

After spending some time at the bakery, Malik and four minors took the victim in the Innova to an isolated place in Jubilee Hills and raped her by taking turns in the vehicle. They later dropped her at the pub.

The incident came to light three days later after the girl's father grew suspicious about the injuries on her neck and approached the police. Woman police officials took the victim into confidence which finally led to the victim revealing the entire incident.

Based on her statement and the CCTV footage gathered from different locations and other evidence, police arrested all the accused.